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Noah Baumbach Secretly Directing the Animated Film 'Flawed Dogs'

Earlier this summer, the latest film from Noah Baumbach arrived to quite the critical praise with 93% at Rotten Tomatoes. Now the director is heading back into the animation world after co-writing Madagascar 3 for DreamWorks Animation. In fact, Bleeding Cool has word that he has returned to that very animation studio and has been directing an adaptation of Berkeley Breathed's book seriesFlawed Dogs. The screenplay is based on the novel The Shocking Raid on Westminster, but Breathed's series has also including the children's picture book The Year End Leftovers at the Piddleton "Last Chance" Dog Pound.

Here's the official synopsis of the novel:

Sam the Lion is actually a priceless dachshund, bred to be a show dog. More important, he is Heidy's best friend—and she needs one like never before. Living with her reclusive uncle is hard, but Sam has a way of making her feel soft and whole. Until the day Sam is framed by the jealous poodle Cassius, and is cast out by Heidy's uncle, alone on the wild streets, where he is roughed up by a world he was not bred for. Sporting a soup ladle for a leg, Sam befriends other abandoned dogs and journeys all the way to the Westminster Dog Show, where his plan for revenge on Cassius takes an unexpected turn when he and Heidy spot each other after years of being apart.

In fact, the screenplay will include some material from the children's book, including a visual style inspired by the illustrations. However, Bleeding Cool notes that this film is still a few years away, and Baumbach is just getting started. After all, the project hasn't even been announced yet, and DreamWorks Animation has already unveiled their slate up through 2016, with no mention of the project. We can likely expect it in 2017 as long as everything goes smoothly, but we'll see what happens. Sound good?

From a purely journalistic perspective, why would you omit the title of Baumbach's film, Frances Ha, in the opening sentence? Is it laziness? Is it out of spite for Alex? Do you get paid per-click when folks jump over to RT? I just want to try to understand that decision.

DavideCoppola

Animation is one of my least favorite genres, but this could be interesting..